I saw this topic spring up online recently, and it got me thinking: what makes a subplot bad? As a writer, it’s an important question—the fewer bad subplots, the more money we make. The more money we make, the faster we become eccentric weirdos hammering away on a typewriter in our custom-built, cliff-perched, storm-wracked Enya castles.

I mean, the more fulfilling art we can make or whatever.

So, how can we avoid the dreaded D-level B-plot?

Here are a few subplot issues I struggle with, both in what I’m reading/watching and what I’m writing: